This blog's purpose is to document the local excesses from the housing bubble era.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

What's really happening in Passaic?

Sales are still falling. Home prices are falling. But the number of houses on the market is increasing. This BusinessWeek article titled Home sales, prices mostly fall in Northeast puts a regional perspective on the issue. Let's take a look -

Homes sales tumbled in most big Northeastern cities last month -- with only Passaic, N.J., showing a healthy jump in activity -- while sales of distressed properties dragged down median prices in the entire region, according to two reports released Monday.

Sales of existing homes in the Northeast declined nearly 12 percent in July from a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said. The median price in the Northeast was $278,700, down almost 5 percent from July 2007.

That reflected the national trend: sales dropped more than 13 percent year-over-year, while the median price decreased 7.1 percent to $212,000.

But the Associated Press-Re/Max Monthly Housing Report, also released Monday, showed July sales dropped by at least 20 percent in five of the nine Northeast cities tracked. The report analyzed home sales recorded by all real estate agents in those cities, regardless of company affiliation.

In the one bright spot, Passaic, sales jumped 38 percent over July last year. But the rapid sales pace could be stymied by glut of properties coming onto the market. The supply of unsold homes grew 32 percent to 10.6 months, and the median price slid 6 percent to $400,000.

Several areas of Passaic have high foreclosure numbers. This info can be found here. The foreclosure numbers are greatest in Paterson, Clifton, Haledon, North Haledon and the City of Passaic. It will be interesting to find where exactly in Passaic this huge uptick took place. Was this dispersed throughout or isolated to the really distressed areas?